QScope

Final account and reports

Final account built from the project record

Every adjustment from the original contract sum to the final balance due, in the order RICS sets out, so the client can follow it without a covering letter explaining the spreadsheet.

  • Adjustments follow the RICS final account order
  • Only non-zero lines print, so the statement stays readable
  • Retention release shown explicitly, not folded into a total
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Final account screen: original contract sum, each variation and adjustment, the adjusted contract sum and certificates issued

QScope lays out the ladder: original sum, variations, omissions, provisional sums, remeasurement, dayworks, fluctuations and loss and expense, then what has been certified and what remains.

From contract sum to balance due, line by line

The argument at final account is almost never about the total.

It is about one adjustment the client did not expect and cannot trace. QScope lays out the ladder: original sum, variations, omissions, provisional sums, remeasurement, dayworks, fluctuations and loss and expense, then what has been certified and what remains.

Final Account

Every adjustment named, not folded into a total

The argument at final account is almost never about the total.

  • Provisional sums adjusted against what the work actually cost
  • Remeasurement, dayworks and fluctuations each on their own line
  • Loss and expense stated separately, because it is not subject to retention
Final account statement with every variation and adjustment on its own line

QScope lists each category on its own line, in the order RICS sets out, and prints only the ones that are not zero so the statement stays readable.

Variations

Where the adjustments to the contract sum come from

The £1,000 for variations on the account is not a lump.

  • Basis of valuation held against every variation
  • Additions and omissions both carried through
  • Certified percentage tracked against each variation
Final account settings: adjustments for provisional sums, prime cost, remeasurement, dayworks, fluctuations and loss and expense

QScope carries the approved variations into the adjusted contract sum and keeps the basis of valuation behind each one, so a challenged adjustment can be traced to its clause and its instruction.

See it running before you sign up

Retention

The release that closes out the account

Certified to date is deducted gross at £84,115, because retention has not been paid yet.

  • Certified to date deducted gross, not net
  • Retention release shown as its own line
  • Half at practical completion, half at making good
Final balance due to the client, excluding and including VAT

QScope carries the retention through as an explicit release, matching the retention notice, so the client can see the security returned rather than quietly netted off.

Loss and expense

Loss and expense stands on its own line

Loss and expense is not subject to retention and it is not a variation.

  • Ascertained total carried as its own line
  • Brought in from the Loss and expense tab with Use in final account
  • Not subject to retention, so kept off the retained figures
Loss and expense heads with period, cause, basis of ascertainment and amount

QScope carries the ascertained total to the account on its own line, each head linked to the delay event it arose from, so the client sees what was allowed and on what basis.

Final Account

The Final Account Agreement, ready for both signatures

The Final Account Agreement works from the original contract sum to the final amount due, and prints with signature blocks for the client and the contractor.

  • Contract sum, approved variations, adjustments and omissions, giving the adjusted contract sum
  • Less certified to date, deposit outstanding and unrecovered advance, then the retention release
  • Ends in the final amount due, or the overpayment repayable if the client has paid too much
Printed Final Account Agreement with the adjusted contract sum, certificates issued, balance and signature blocks for both parties

A Settings switch decides whether the final account is released to the client and the project team, so it is shown when you are ready and not before.

Every other function on the Final account and reports screen

9 functions the sections above do not cover, each as it works in the program.

Functions 1 to 5

01A goodwill discount, as a percentage or a fixed sum, prints as its own deduction from the final balance.
02Until you release it, the client sees a holding notice with the JCT dates worked out from practical completion.
03Agreed dayworks go into the final account with one button on the Dayworks screen.
04The account lists every issued valuation, gross and net, and leaves drafts out.
05Only the deposit and advance payments not yet recovered through valuations come off the final balance, so nothing is deducted twice.

Functions 6 to 9

06A deposit or advance paid without a tax invoice is deducted after VAT, on its own line under the VAT.
07The Final Account screen tells you whether it is released or still visible to you alone.
08Retention held on the deposit is released on the agreement as its own line, at the rate on the day you print it.
09The contract register carries the final account dates: the contractor's documents at six months after practical completion and the statement at nine.

Who it is for

One final account, four names on it

You are applying

You build the account from evidence

You build the final account from every adjustment on the record, and argue it from evidence rather than memory.

Applying for payment
the same measurement

You are certifying

You settle it, deduction by deduction

You settle the account from the other chair, and every deduction has to trace back to an instruction, a valuation or a notice.

Certifying payment

You are doing both

You close a year of paper alone

You agree the final account yourself, a year of paperwork against a client who remembers it differently.

Doing both yourself

You are reporting

You sign off before the facility closes

You confirm the final position before the facility closes: retention released, variations settled, the account signed off.

Recommending a drawdown

The client, the architect and the tenderer are not on this list. They are the people you let in on a link: they see the one document you sent them, answer it, and that answer is written into the record. No account, no licence, no charge, on every plan.

FAQs

The questions this page raises most often, answered without a sales pitch at the end.

Yes. Omitted work carries through as a negative adjustment, and provisional sums, remeasurement, dayworks, fluctuations and loss and expense each have their own line so the client can see what moved and why.

Because retention has not been paid yet, so it is added back on the next line as a release. Deducting net would quietly lose the retention from the account. The statement shows both steps rather than hiding the arithmetic.

That is the point of it. Anticipated final cost against the approved budget is available from the first valuation, and the variance is shown as a figure rather than a colour, so it survives being printed in black and white.

Enter their purchase order or reference in the project settings and it prints on certificates and reports, so their accounts team can match it without emailing you.

From the blog

The part nobody teaches you, written down

Three pieces from the same corner of a contract as this page, answered at length and without a sales pitch at the end.

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Final account04/08/2026
The client wants a discount now the work is finished. Do I have to give one?

No. There is no rule of law that finished work earns a discount, and the request usually works only because the builder is tired and the retention is hostage. How to price a concession properly if you choose to make one, and what never to trade away.

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Final account22/06/2026
What is a final certificate, and why does signing it end your claims?

On many standard forms the final certificate is not just the last payment: after a short window passes, it becomes conclusive evidence on the account, in both directions. The window is weeks, it is in your particulars, and it does not care whether you noticed it.

Read now
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Final account04/06/2026
The account after termination is not the final account

When an employer terminates for contractor default, the reckoning that follows weighs cost of completion and damages against what the contractor would have been due. It is a different exercise from a final account.

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All 174 pieces

Keep reading

The three parts this page leans on

Reports Print the reports a quantity surveyor actually sends: anticipated final cost against budget, retention notice, payment schedule and variation register. See how it works Variations Record the instruction, basis of valuation and clause, on JCT, NEC or FIDIC. Approved variations pull straight into a payment certificate. See how it works Retention Full rate during the works, half rate after practical completion in the UK, or FIDIC release at Taking-Over and the end of the Defects Notification Period. See how it works

A final account that shows its working

Every adjustment from the original contract sum to the final balance due, in the order RICS sets out, so the client can follow it without a covering letter explaining the spreadsheet.

Start free for 30 days See the interactive demo

30 days free, no card.

Rather ask first? Write to help@qscope.co.uk and you will get a reply within one working day, Monday to Friday.